"Ulrike Hofbauer was born in Bavaria and studied voice and voice teaching at the Universities of Wurzburg and Salzburg, and at the ‘Schola Cantorum Basiliensis’ in Basle. The teachers who influenced her most profoundly were Sabine Schutz, Evelyn Tubb and Anthony Rooley; further musical insights were provided by Christina Pluhar und Andrea Marcon.

Ulrike now lives in Basel and as a soloist has worked with conductors such as Christoph Hammer, Konrad Junghänel, Daniel Reuss, und Philippe Herreweghe. The soprano is a member of several vocal ensembles including the ‘Collegium Vocale Gent’, ‘Cantus Coelln’, ‘L’Arpeggiata’ and sang with the acclaimed German vocal sextett ‘Singer Pur’ for several years.

Her versatility as a singer is documented not only in recordings and live performances on the radio, but in a number of CD recordings.

Currently she is devoting much of her energies to her own baroque ensemble ‘savādi...’, with whom she won the Early Music Competition in York in 2003 and also the Van Wassenaer Concours in The Hague in 2004. (www.savadi.net).

Teaching is also an important part of her life and has taken her to, inter alia, the Universities of Bogota (Colombia), Minsk (Belarus) and the "Bayersische Theaterakademie" in Munich.

She enjoys exploring new and unusual repertoires covering different epochs and styles. Ulrike is particularly interested in the “recitar cantando” style as well as the use of dramatic theatrical techniques to heighten the emotional impact of the text and music. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“Peter Kooij started his musical career at 6-years-old as a choir boy and sang many solo soprano-parts in concerts and recordings. He started his musical studies however as a violin student. This was followed by singing tuition from Max van Egmond at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, which led to the award of the diploma for solo performance.

He has been an active soloist in many concerts all over the world in the most important concert-halls like Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Wien, Carnegie Hall New York, Royal Albert Hall London, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Berliner and Kölner Philharmonie, Palais Garnier Paris, Suntory and Casals Hall Tokyo, where he performed with famous conductors like Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt, René Jacobs, Sigiswald Kuijken, Roger Norrington and Iwan Fisher.

His wide repertoire contains all kind of music from Schütz to Weill and he has made over 130 CDs for Philips, Sony and Virgin Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Erato, EMI and BIS. He was invited by BIS to record the complete Bach cantatas, passions and masses with the Bach Collegium Japan under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki.

Peter Kooij is the artistic director of the "Ensemble Vocal Européen". From 1991 to 2000 professor at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. From 1995 to 1998 Lehrauftrag at the Musikhochschule in Hannover. Since 2000 Professor at the Tokyo University of fine Arts and Music. From September 2005 professor at the Royal Conservorium in Den Haag. He was invited to give master classes in Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Finnland and Japan. “

“The Countertenor Kai Wessel was born in Hamburg and studied music theory (Prof.R.Ploeger), composition (Prof.Dr.F.Döhl), and voice (Prof.U.v.Garczynski, concert examination passed with honours) at the Lübeck Academy of Music. During his Lübeck years Wessel was also an external student in the field of baroque performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (René Jacobs).

Wessel received numerous prizes between 1984 and 1990, including the special prize of the German Theater Society for the best interpretation of a contemporary work (Berlin, 1988) and a prize at the Musica Antiqua Competition of the Flanders Festival in Bruges. He received fellowships from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the DAAD (studying under Peter Kooj in Hilversum/Holland). Wessel has served as an assistant to René Jacobs in the production of operas by P.A.Cesti, F.Cavalli and C.W.Gluck for the International Festival Week of Early Music in Innsbruck, for the WDR Radio, and at the Hamburg State Opera.

"Julianne Baird, soprano, has been hailed as "one of the most extraordinary voices in the service of early music that this generation has produced. She possesses a natural musicianship which engenders singing of supreme expressive beauty." She maintains a busy concert schedule of solo recitals and performances of baroque opera and
oratorio.
Ms. Baird has also appeared as soloist with many major symphony orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi, the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lukas Foss, the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and, in the 2000-2001 season, the Philadelphia Orchestra. James R. Oestreich, in his comprehensive survey of New York's seasonal performances of Handel's Messiah for the N.Y. Times, recently concluded with special praise for Julianne Baird's
interpretative skills: "in that respect, Ms. Baird remains the model". " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"Since its inception in 1995 in Hamburg, the solo vocal ensemble Himlische Cantorey became one of the most respected ensembles in the field of historical performance practice. Intensive discussion music and lyrics of the Renaissance and Baroque periods and highest demands on sound culture shape doing regular work of the ensemble.

The members of the Himlischen Cantorey are not only experienced ensemble singers but have all made ​​as soloists in the concert world a good name so that despite a homogeneous overall sound of the specificity of each individual voice comes into play.
A busy concert schedule has the Himlische Cantorey already on renowned festivals such as the Leipzig Bach Festival and the Göttingen Handel Festival, as well as France, Italy, Luxembourg and Austria, where the ensemble at the Vienna Musikverein concerted. ..."

“Franz Vitzthum received his initial musical training as a member of the Regensburger Domspatzen. In 2007 he completed his degrees at the Musikhochschule Köln as a pupil of Kai Wessel. At present he is working with Stefan Haselhoff (Basel).

In addition to his ensemble work with groups including the Weser Renaissance under Manfred Cordes and Cantus Cölln under Konrad Junghänel, Franz Vitzthum focuses his attentions on solo engagements where he has worked with the conductors Christoph Poppen, Peter Neumann or Nicholas McGegan.

Franz Vitzthum has made guest appearances at international festivals including the Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz, Oude Muziek Festival Utrecht, La Folle Journée Nantes, The Bach Festival Philadelphia (USA) and has performed with such orchestras as the Chamber Orchestra Basel Barock and The English Concert. ..“ Visit website for more information. (ed.)

In the past few years, ensemble officium has made an excellent name for itself with its interpretations of Renaissance music and Gregorian chant and has become internationally well-known. It usually consists of twelve singers.

ensemble officium carries out thorough research, performs scholarly interpretations of Renaissance vocal polyphony and pays close attention to the semiotics and nuance of Gregorian chant. The intense studies of the scores lead time and again to fascinating discoveries, such as “The Loreto Vespers” for 12 voices by Antonio Cifra (1629). By performing the music as authentically as possible, the ensemble creates a unique and absorbing atmosphere. Works of sacred music from the Middle Ages, based on liturgical texts and retaining original liturgical framework, are also part of the ensemble’s specialties. In this way, the close connection between early vocal polyphony and Gregorian chant can ably be demonstrated.

ensemble officium not only experiments with integrating new music. Every so often, the group includes music of the Franco-Flemish School. Here, the focus lies in particular on Heinrich Isaac and his generation of composers. …”

"Founded in 1992 by erstwhile members of St Thomas’s Boys Choir in Leipzig, amarcord has since become one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. amarcord’s hallmarks include a unique tone, breathtaking homogeneity, musical authenticity, and a good dose of charm and humour. amarcord performs a vast and highly diverse repertoire of music, from medieval plainsong to madrigals and Renaissance masses, to compositions and cycles of works of the European Romantic period and the 20th century, a cappella folksong arrangements collected from all over the world, all the way to rock, pop, soul and jazz charts. ..."

“The Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704 were founded by harpsichordist and conductor Václav Luks in 2005 on the occasion of the BACH – PRAHA – 2005 project. This marked the beginning of their regular collaboration with the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

Since 2007 Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 have been residential ensembles of the Saint Wenceslas Music Festival in Ostrava. The year 2007 was dedicated to the composer Jan Dismas Zelenka and his Missa votiva for which the ensembles received critical acclaim at La Chaise-Dieu and Sablé festivals in France. Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 are also frequent guests of festivals such as the Festival de Festival de Musique de Sully & du Loiret, Festival Baroque de Pontoise, Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay. …”

"Mixed chamber choir Cantio antiqua Praha was establish in the end of 80's by ex-members of student choir Cantus semper vivus, which was run by Grammar school Budejovicka in Prague 4 and which was conducted by Mrs. Vera Jankovicova. In the present structure Cantio antiqua Praha performs from cca 1999.

Cantio antiqua Praha is mainly concentrate on renaissance and early baroque polyphonic music. The repertoire is build from up to octovoiced secular and sacred vocal works from Italian, French, British, German and Spanish composers. The independent part of our repertoire are Christmas songs, which represent character of this music in Bohemia and Moravia from beginning of 15th century until works of early baroque composers.

Cantio antiqua Praha's chamber cast (four sopranos, one mezzo-soprano, three altos, one tenor and one bass) enables to approach to period interpretative practise, when every voice went about perhaps only one singer or instrumentalist. Cantio antiqua Praha occasionally collaborate with instrumentalists who play recorders, lutes, guitars, stringed instruments or harpsichords. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“ The Ensemble was founded in the Galilee region of Israel by the bass and harpsichordist Elam Rotem. It is currently based in Switzerland, where all its members undertook further study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The ensemble has benefited both individually and collectively from the expertise of leading musicians, amongst them Evelyn Tubb, Anthony Rooley, Gerd Türk and Dominique Vellard. …”

"She was born in Huesca, Spain. At the age of nine she began studying voice and piano at the Miguel Fleta School of Music. From there she went on to study voice at the Conservatorio del Liceu de Barcelona where she specialized in opera and received an honours diploma. Subsequently she transferred to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, where she studied with Dominique Vellard and Richard Levitt and began working as a soloist and chamber musician with various groups such as Gilles Binchois (medieval and renaissance music), Vox Suavis, (founded by her and Dominique Vellard, dedicated to traditional and medieval spanish music) and la Cecchina (baroque music). With these ensembles she has performed regularly at international festivals in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. She also has given introductory courses to the interpretation of old music at the conservatory of Huesca (Spain), in New Hampshire (USA) and at the Pigna University in Corsica. She has collaborated in several cd recordings with Gilles Binchois and la Cecchina."

"Victoria IV is a four-member a cappella ensemble that specializes in singing Madrigal repertoire of the 16th and 17th centuries.

McGill’s Madrigal Ensemble, The Victoria IV, was formed in the fall of 2011 by Early Music Ensemble coordinators Valerie Kinslow and Betsy MacMillan, who has also been their coach. The ensemble has presented a number of concerts together in and around McGill and Montreal. Over its two-year history, the group has compiled an extensive repertoire list, a number of recordings, and is known for its engaging performances and unique vocal blend."

"TACTUS, an eight-voice vocal ensemble, specializes in repertoire of the European Renaissance and is dedicated to musical scholarship and excellence in performance techniques. Performing without a conductor and usually a capella, the ensemble's work emanates from their combined skills and experience and from their intuitive connections to each other and to their passion for early music.

TACTUS has sung at the Guelph Spring Festival, Toronto's Hummingbird Centre and has been featured on CBC Radio Two's Music Around Us and Choral Concert. TACTUS was featured in Soul Music, a Vision TV documentary hosted by Howard Dyck. Artistic collaborations with Dancetheatre David Earle, the Toronto Bach Consort, Tafelmusik's Charlotte Nediger and Sergei Istomin, Arbor Oak Ensemble, the Penderecki String Quartet and NUMUS have enabled TACTUS to branch into Baroque, 19th century and contemporary repertoire. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“Internationally renowned, Acadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc has established an extraordinary career specializing in Baroque and Classical repertoire and exploring and recording a substantial amount of unpublished material while living in Europe. Her thirst and curiosity for new vistas now lead her toward the repertoire of French mélodies, lieder, Acadian folk music, contemporary music as well as exploring the art of improvisation with Helmut Lipsky and « Au parfum de Tango ».

Her contribution to Acadian culture with the CDs La Mer Jolie and Tout passe and with the documentary Suzie LeBlanc : A Musical Quest, directed by Donald Winkler, along with her performances of Early Music have earned her honorary doctorates from King’s College University in Halifax and Mount Allison University in New-Brunswick. …

As an actress, she played the lead character in the film Lost Song directed by Rodrigue Jean which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2008 and won the City TV Best Canadian Feature Award. She can also be seen on film in More than a thousand kisses (Bach’s Coffee Cantata) and Suzie LeBlanc and a man named Quantz, both produced by the late Robert Chesterman for Prometheus Productions.

She has worked with many of the world’s leading early music ensembles in concert and opera performances as well as on film and on disc. Concerts have taken her to Festivals all over the world as well as to the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Wigmore Hall and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. On the opera stage, she has performed for De Nederlandse Opera, Festival de Beaune, Opéra de Montréal, the Boston Early Music Festival, Tanglewood, Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver.

In recent seasons, she recorded Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with La Petite Bande (Bayer Records) and Mozart lieder with Yannick Nézet-Seguin (ATMA) and returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Bach’s St-Matthew Passion as staged by Jonathan Miller. Other recent recordings include Lully’s Thésée (CPO), Gluck’s Orphée (Naxos), Buxtehude motets with Emma Kirkby, Peter Harvey and the Purcell Symphony (Chandos), and a Handel Portrait (ATMA). …

Suzie LeBlanc is artistic director of Le Nouvel Opéra (www.lenouvelopera.com) which is ensemble-in-residence at the Montreal Conservatory and co-artisic director of the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Festival (2011) in Nova Scotia (www.elizabethbishopcentenary.blogspot.com).”

“Formed in 2009 by co-artistic directors John Brough and Jolaine Kerley, the Scona Chamber Singers are a professional vocal ensemble, based in Edmonton Alberta, who specialize in the music of the medieval, renaissance and baroque eras. In their short existence, they have presented programs of rarely performed composers from these eras, including Christopher Tye, William Mundy, Orlando di Lasso, and Heinrich Schütz.

The ensemble is made up of highly skilled choral and solo singers from the Edmonton area, many of whom have advanced degrees in music, as well as in-depth research interest in early music performance practice. Each singer brings with them a unique blend of solo and choral experience allowing our concerts to showcase not only the choir as an ensemble, but also individual solo opportunities.”

" The Renaissance Singers were founded in 1972. The choir's early reputation was based on its polished performances of Renaissance a capella literature. Today, the choir sings music from the masters of all centuries. The Renaissance Singers have also commissioned and premiered the works of leading Canadian composers. Every year, the Singers perform four Saturday and Sunday concerts in the Waterloo Region.

The choir was the first Canadian choir to sing in the fringe of The Three Choirs Festival, the oldest music festival in the world. In 1989, the choir was invited to return, becoming the first Canadian choir to sing in the main festival. The choir has been on tour four times, and has sung n Westminster Abbey, Yorkminster, and the cathedrals of Canterbury, Chichester, Ely, Guildford, Norwich, Salisbury, Wells, Winchester, St. George's Chapel, Lincoln, St. Alban's and Ripon. The highly regarded chamber choir has four recordings to its credit, with plans for more in the near future. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"Founded by tenor Bud Roach in 2008, Capella Intima has carved out a niche for itself in the Toronto early music scene by presenting the vocal chamber music of the 17th century in exciting concerts of rarely-heard gems. With motets and cantatas for up to four voices interspersed with readings from composers, performers and critics of the period, audiences are given context to music that has only come to light in recent years, thanks to the renewed interest in historically informed performance.

With a flexible roster of singers and musicians, each programme has a developed theme, whether it be the rebellious Benedictine Nuns of Milan, the students and teachers at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, or the complex musical politics in Monteverdi’s time in Venice. ..."

“graindelavoix (grain of the voice) is an art-collective formed by björn schmelzer. since 1999 he is looking for musicians who want to experiment between performance and creation. the necessity of autoproductive and physical art keeps them together.

graindelavoix is fascinated by voices that stop communicating, that have no message anymore but rather are the pure expression of their underground: the gritty, intense and instinctive...

graindelavoix uses early music repertoires to find the undercurrent that illuminates our own times: a timeless spirit that stretches out to embrace an interval, a space.

what preoccupies graindelavoix in early music is the bond between notation and what eludes it: the higher consciousness and savoir-faire that the performer brings to a piece (ornamentation, improvisation, gestures...). to graindelavoix, singers are 'spiritual automata'...

material they work with includes ockeghem's polyphony, the plainte, machicotage, mediterrenean practices, late scholastic dynamics and kinematics, the affective body, gesture and image culture...

graindelavoix gives performances (concert/music theatre) that are the accumulated fragments of a wider work and research process: this site makes an attempt at framing.

graindelavoix is 'special guest' of “music-centre de bijloke in” ghent and has an artistical partnership with the “cultural centre of genk“. cd's are produced exclusively for glossamusic. ..“

“The ensemble Encantar was founded end 2006 by four young female singers.

They set themselves a target to study the rich polyfonic repertoire of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in order to present it in a contemporary way to the public. The ensemble investigates the possibility to perform with female voices this repertoire that was written originally for men’s voices.

Encantar mainly focusses on religious repertoire of Flemish, Spanish and Italian composers, next to anonymous works and French and English compositions of the same period. Encantar made a special program for ‘Jeugd & Muziek‘ entitled “Mix Méditerrané“ featuring some great works of southern polyphonists such as Cristobal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero, Bernardo Pisano, Costanzo Festa and Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina. Encantar cooperated for this production with Hendrik De Smedt (actor) under direction of Maja Jantar.

Recently, Encantar has been on tour with “La déclinaison de la femme“ a program featuring Marguerite of Austria (1480-1530).

In 2009, Encantar won the Klara Tandemtrofee 2009, together with the Audience Prize and the Radio Klara Prize.

Encantar followed masterclasses with Erik Van Nevel, Jean Tubéry and Marcel Pérès. Every year, the ensemble travels to Arezzo (Italy) to be coached by Jill Feldman and Kees Boeke.

Two recordings have been made so far, one together with the recorder consort Flanders Recorder Quartet (Aeolus) (release December 2010) and one with two lutes and renaissance harp for the label Phaedra (release May 2011).

In July 2011, Encantar won the York Early Music Festival Friends ‘ Prize.“

“Collegium Vocale Gent was founded in 1970 on the initiative of Philippe Herreweghe. It was one of the first ensembles to use the then-new ideas about baroque practice in vocal music performances. Musicians such as Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman and Nikolaus Harnoncourt immediately took an interest in the Flemish ensemble’s fresh, new approach, which led to intensive collaboration. In the mid-1980s the ensemble acquired international fame and was invited to all the major concert halls and music festivals of Europe, Israel, the United States, Russian, South America, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. ..“